Long queues for ferries at Port of Dover as Easter weekend rush gets underway
Easter getaways have already been disrupted by a fresh round of delays at the Port of Dover.
Ferry operators warned holidaymakers face a two to three-hour slog to get through border controls and check in over the bank holiday.
Long queues had already begun to form early on Good Friday despite organised efforts to avoid last weekend’s chaos, when thousands of people were delayed by up to 14 hours.
Port officials insisted they had carried out an ‘urgent review’ with ferry operators and French officials, whose ‘lengthy border processes’ were blamed for failing to cope with the Easter rush.
Coach companies were urged to ‘spread’ services booked for Friday over to Thursday and Saturday, but few are thought to have made amendments.
Whereas last weekend’s delays mainly affected coaches, cars are now taking much longer than usual to process as well.
Irish Ferries, one of three main operators sailing out of Dover, warned passengers check-in could take up to three hours on Friday morning.
The other two, DFDS and P&O Ferries, said the wait to board their vessels was two hours and one hour respectively.
P&O said the roads in and around Dover are ‘extremely busy’ but insisted all of its departures in the first half of the day are set to leave on time.
People travelling within France are set to face further disruption over the weekend due to protests and strikes over plans to raise the national retirement age from 62 to 64.
Several major motorways in and around Paris, other major cities and the French Alps were blocked or closed, while a number of regional TER and cross-country TGV train lines have been suspended.
Flights to other European destinations have also been severely affected due to French air traffic controllers walking out.
At least 20 BA services due to fly on Thursday were axed as they needed to use French airspace.
Protesters also blocked a road from Terminal 1 of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, forcing travellers to make part of their journey on foot.
Motorists making trips within central and southwest England are also likely to experience severe congestion on Friday, according to the RAC.
Traffic is expected to crawl at just 12mph during the busiest times on the A303 westbound, the M5 south from Bristol and the M25 anticlockwise between Hertfordshire and Surrey.
Some two million people are set to travel from Britain overseas during the long weekend, according to The Travel Association, with other popular destinations including Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece.
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